A Little Act of Kindness Goes A Long Way!

Santiago hearing better thanks to Chris and Grayson in our community!

Here is a feel good story for the day in our microtia and atresia community!

Chris Bowman is a member in our community who was born with unilateral microtia and atresia. Chris helped co-host our picnic in Virginia this summer. During our Virginia picnic, a family who was only Spanish speaking joined us during our special day, but our interpreter didn’t show up to our event. However, Chris found a way to help!

Chris used a translation app on his phone to help have a conversation with this family and was able to communicate with Santiago and his mom, Jhoanna. It turns out, that Jhoanna was concerned about Santiago not being able to hear well in school because of his microtic/atretic ear and they couldn’t afford a hearing device to help him hear better. Thanks to Chris having this conversation with Jhoanna and Santiago, our Ear Community Organization was able to help Santiago receive the gift of hearing with a gently used Ponto Superpower! Way to go Chris and thank you for helping Santiago hear his best, which is just in time for the new school year!

Chris is currently a medical school student at UVA, working toward becoming an ENT! I think we can say that this was Chris’ first patient that he was able to help with hearing for his ENT career! Chris is also Ear Community’s scholarship manager and has helped us advocate for Ally’s Act in Washington, DC!

Just before our picnic in Georgia, Lauren Sorrels and her son, Grayson, reached out wanting to find a new home for some of his hearing devices he didn’t need anymore after being implanted with the NEW Sentio by Oticon Medical. Lauren gave me her son’s hearing devices in Georgia and one of the Pontos that Grayson donated was gifted to Santiago! When Grayson was implanted with the NEW Sentio System, he wanted to help give back to the community by donating his hearing devices to someone else in need. Thankfully, Santiago found our community and we are grateful that Grayson was excited to help another boy have the chance to hear just like he has over the years! Grayson donated multiple hearing devices to our organization that he has worn over the years before being implanted. Thanks to Grayson, Santiago was also able to receive batteries and two new soft band headbands with his donated Ponto! Thank you for helping give back to another kid in our community, Grayson!

I remember communicating with Jhonna via email and using Google Translate, encouraging her to come to our picnic, even though she was hesitant and worried about communicating. I am so happy she and Santiago decided to come to our picnic in Virginia!